Thursday, December 3, 2009

Men, Time To Bend Over

The Senate passed the first amendment to the Healthcare Reform Bill. The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, forces insurance companies to provide screening tests for women's health issues at little to no cost. Another win for another interest group.

Let's count the winners so far in America's health care debate. As just mentioned, women will now get virtually free screening exams courtesy of insurance premiums paid by all. The elderly in Medicare are sacrosanct, as exemplified by the Senate's vote tonight to leave all Medicare benefits untouched, despite the pledge by Congress to cut $500 billion from Medicare spending. Veterans are protected with free health care from the VA. Poor to middle class children are covered by SCHIP. Poor and disabled adults are covered by Medicaid. Illegal immigrants get charity care in county hospitals and the emergency room.

Who are the losers so far in this debate? It is the hard working middle to upper middle class men in America. It is these men, the most productive members of American society, who have been left out to dry. We are the ones who earn most of the income from which Congress will redistribute to everybody else. We are the men who spend so much time at work to make sure our families are well taken care of that we miss our own physical exams, our own screening tests for prostate or colon cancers, our own dental and eye exams. Nobody in Congress dares to mention the inequity of it all. While it is compassionate to offer free health exams for women, it would be completely sexist if the same bill applied only to men.

So men, get ready. The rubber gloved finger of government is about to become a fist.